Sitecom SD/MMC based MP3 player

C

ClubMan

Registered User
Messages
49,867
I can't find the topic where I mentioned this recently but [broken link removed] had this MP3 player from Sitecom in stock today (it was listed in their previous monthly brochure as a special a while back and I thought that they had sold out) for Eur41.49 (strange price - must be the conversion from Sterling or something?) so I bought one as a gimmicky treat today. It's not bad for the price. Sound quality is not amazing (not much bass or volume) and the battery included seems to have drained but it'll do as a more portable low capacity alternative to my main (not so petite) [broken link removed] player. Now, need to find somebody travelling to the US soon to pick me up a few SD/MMC cards.
 
Thanks for the tip - I don't need them urgently so I'll probably just get somebody to pick them up in the US at some point in the future.
 
Don't go above 512MB, that's the max. size of card it reads...
You could try 'sniping' one from this eBay seller?

(P.S. nice, neat little 'shirt-pocket' player, for the money!)
 
While the site says that it only supports 512MB cards I just tried a 1GB card in it and it was able to read the music files which were deeply embedded in the directory hierarchy. I didn't try writing to it because it wasn't mine! I will test this on Monday and I might try it for a while to see if it kills the battery or something. Some other observations - it doesn't seem to like rechargeable NiMH batteries and only runs for a brief period on them before stopping. I haven't tried it with alkalines yet. Also the supplied headphones seem dodgy and the jack doesn't make a good connection when plugged in so I had to try another pair that I had and they worked fine. The sound is actually OK with these too. I will play around a bit more with it and post back with details.
 
Strange - the player doesn't seem to like rechargeable batteries at all. Running it off an alkaline seems to work OK though (so far anyway). Anybody any ideas as to why this might be so? Is there something about SD/MMC cards that they prefer alkalines over rechargeables? I would have assume the opposite. For what it's worth I successfully run my Palm III PDA off the same NiMHs that I tried here.

By the way it looks like you can get something even more fully featured (e.g. LCD display, built in graphic equaliser etc. - may be USB 1.1 rather than USB 2.0 though) for even less than Eur40 by combining this SD/MMC reader/MP3 player (no SD/MMC card included) on special offer for GBP13 with an SD/MMC card for GBP8 (both seemingly VAT exempt - which seems a bit odd) plus [broken link removed] of GBP4 which comes in around Eur37.
 
That's a strange one about the low battery life with NiMH rechargeables, Clubman. I can imagine that a brand-new good quality alkaline would have a bit more 'zap' in it initially than a rechargeable (what mAh rating?), but I wouldn't have expected the difference to be that dramatic - presuming your rechargeables are indeed recharging fully?As I mentioned on another thread somewhere, the Fuji xD-card player I have gets slightly lower battery life than my kids' [broken link removed]ones - I assume it's down to the greater 'drain' involved in reading the data from a card. But the difference is only about 25-30%. I still get a good 7 or 8 hours from a (800mAh) AAA battery.
 
Maybe the problem is that rechargeable batteries have a slightly lower voltage i.e. 1.2v vs 1.5v ? This player may be particularly sensitive to this.
 
euroDilbert said:
Maybe the problem is that rechargeable batteries have a slightly lower voltage i.e. 1.2v vs 1.5v ? This player may be particularly sensitive to this.
Click to expand...

In most cases the nominal voltage rating of the battery should not matter in this context. My NiMHs do recharge to c. 1.2V every time. I will try some brand new, good quality alkalines and see what happens as the ones that I was using were not new and were also dropping off after a while. If the player simply doesn't work reliably I will bring it back.

CCOVICH said:
I see Aldi are selling a 1GB SD card from Thursday for €79.99.
Click to expand...

Saw that alright. Thanks. But I'll probably still wait until somebody is going to the US.
 
OK - latest update is that (a) as mentioned earlier, the supplied headphones do not connect properly with the jack whereas other headphones that I have do and (b) there seems to be something dodgy with the battery compartment so that the battery terminals do not make reliable contact which might explain the problems mentioned above (even though I unsuccessfully tried this hack) and can cause the player to shut off when shaken/knocked. So basically the player (or this particular model) does not work properly so I am bringing it back to Maplin to get a refund and have ordered the one mentioned above with a 256MB SD Card from 7DayShop for and will see how I get on with that instead. Pity it's only USB 1.1 while the Sitecom one was USB 2.0 but speed is no use without reliability!
 
I returned the Sitecom player to Maplin today and got a refund no hassle. Coincidentally Maplin are now also selling the player that I have ordered from 7DayShop (it was on back order so there was a bit of a delay but it has been dispatched now) but it's still cheaper to order it plus a 256MB SDCard from 7DayShop than to buy it directly from Maplin (€32.49 for player plus €32.49 for 256MB card in Maplin versus c. €47 for both plus delivery from 7DayShop).
 
Finally collected the player itself from the PO this morning after a bit of a delay with back order delivery and then also locally when An Post could not find it initially (by the way the bloke in An Post was extermely friendly, apologetic and helpful - even calling my wife when he found the package later in the day). I stuck in the supplied battery, headphones the SD card that I had received previously, dragged some folders containing MP3s over and was up and running. Sound quality is pretty good. The main limitations are (a) no ID3 tagging (b) no random/shuffle play feature (c) USB 1.1 only but for the price it's hard to complain.
 
7dayshop are currently selling something like this (SD MP3 player) for £12.99 (without memory card). P&P is £3.95 I think. Limitations are as described by ClubMan.
 
Ooops-hadn't read all the posts, just got an e-mail about this the other evening, so thought I'd share. Feel free to delete my post, I do not want to come accross as a shameless promoter of 7dayshop!
 
That player is working great for me. The only problem I have is that the 700mAh Energizer AAA rechargeable NiMH batteries that I normally use for other portable devices (e.g. Palm PDA etc.) don't last very long in it (and definitely not as long as alkalines). Does anybody know if it is worth shelling out for some 900mAh rechargeables and if these might last longer?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register